Kansas Jayhawks News: Will “The Alliance” affect the Jayhawks?
The Kansas Jayhawks are in a state of “wait and see” while realignment talks continue to swirl. And it all started in late July when Texas and Oklahoma announced they will not be re-signing with the Big 12 and will eventually be joining the SEC.
In their release, Texas and Oklahoma mentioned they have every intention of remaining in the Big 12 following the expiration in 2025 of their conference grant of rights contract. But word around the college athletics world is that doesn’t seem very likely, meaning it’s more likely the two schools will leave as soon as they can to join their new conference.
In the midst of this news and other realignment talks, reports have now been swirling around that three Power 5 conferences could soon be announcing an alliance agreement, which could have many ramifications on the new college football playoff format and further conference realignment.
The three conferences involved in this “alliance” are the Big Ten, the Pac-12, and the ACC–The Big Ten being the Jayhawks dream landing spot.
Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic explains there is hope within this alliance that it would delay talks of an expanded college football playoff.
"There is hope within all three leagues that their commissioners will align to delay the implementation of an expanded College Football Playoff. Athletic directors in all three leagues have expressed concerns over the composition of the four-member working group that proposed the 12-team format and treated it as an inevitability without hearing from any representatives of the three leagues."
Auerback goes on to say, “College sports are in the midst of a transformative time, one that has seen the NCAA more weakened and fragmented than ever before.” Meaning this could also have a big impact on the NCAA as a whole.
The most likely purpose of this alliance will be to gain a majority vote over the SEC when it comes to any decisions made within the league. Many believe with the SEC adding Oklahoma and Texas, they’re positioning themselves to potentially break away from the NCAA or at the very least, distance itself.
The commissioner of the SEC Greg Sankey was quoted by The Athletic in saying, “We’re certainly a part of the NCAA structure — and that’s important — but our identity stands alone.” He continued, “We’re going to be good participants. We also expect significant updating of the NCAA’s role and model, and I think there are some hard conversations ahead.”
Those “hard conversations ahead” may take a while to manifest, but could involve a plethora of things, from changing the entire model of the NCAA to conference realignment.
But this is all being driven by one obvious factor–conferences want more money and they want to have total control of it. And it seems this idea became much more likely with the NCAA’s new name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal.
The part that mainly concerns the Jayhawks is what conference will they eventually end up in. With the Big 12 being left out of this alliance it’s quite clear the expectation is they won’t be around much longer. That erases the idea of the remaining eight members sticking together as long as they can.
On the surface, it doesn’t appear this alliance will have any effect on the Jayhawks and their conference realignment dreams. It appears to be more focused on counteracting the SEC and trying to hold a majority vote in the league. And until all the details of this alliance come to light, we can’t really assume much more.
Either way, confidence remains that the Jayhawks will be well taken care of, whether they end up in the Big 10 or another Power 5, or soon-to-be Power 4, conference.